Hola,
In the past few years, I've kept a record of the first reports of returning
migrants in Virginia, and posted them on Sue Heath's website. I'll be doing
it again this year, and will probably have the spreadsheet on Sue's site
sometime next week.
As always, there are a couple of disclaimers. Some species overwinter in
the state, and make it nearly impossible to discern the first migrant. Osprey
comes to mind, as a few spend winter in the Virginia Beach and Tidewater
area, and they also might appear there first as a migrant, so it makes it hard
to
pick one. I noticed a report of one in Richmond and one in Mathews County
this year a couple weeks ago, and they were likely the first migrants away
from the tidewater, but it's too messy, thus I list nothing beside Osprey.
Laughing Gull is another bird that overwinters in the state and is tough to
pick
the first migrant, as is Phoebe, American Bittern, House Wren, Marsh Wren,
Tree Swallow (though I have deemed a first migrant for that species), and so
on. Today Bob Ake had a White-eyed Vireo at the Great Dismal Swamp, which
might have been a migrant, but might have been there all winter (that's my
bet).
The point of all this is that it isn't a perfect science (or a science at
all), thus I do this for fun, and I list what I think are migrants (and I
realize that I don't have any more insight to what is a migrant and what isn't
than anyone else; probably less).
Another sticky little issue is when birds are reported well ahead of their
expected dates. For these things, I usually ask the person reporting it if
they were entirely certain that's what they saw, and if they can describe it
(even better if they have a picture or something). It's not that I don't
believe them, it's just that I don't believe them. Sometimes I'll list an
outlier
with the next reported date next to it. This isn't meant to insult anyone,
degrade anyone, question anyone's skills, et cetera. I just have a hard time
putting down a Green Heron from early February or a Broad-winged Hawk in
early March if the person didn't send along convincing details.
Admittedly there isn't much benefit from something like this. Virginia is a
big state, and covers a lot of territory and a lot of geography. Those in
the southern part of the state probably get many of these birds first, and
Jethro Runco will undoubtedly get a bunch in his nets at First Landing State
Park. Still, more than I originally expected get reported first in other
parts
of the state. This little endeavor is purely for amusement, mostly mine.
Lastly, I'm on VA-Birds, the Richmond list, Roanoke Birds, New River Valley
Birds, Shenandoah Valley Birds, and I think that's it. If you post sightings
to those lists, I'll likely catch them. If you're diffident by nature and
don't like posting to listservs, please do drop me a note if you find
something early, or earlier than I have posted.
Cheers,
Todd
Link to Sue's website:
_http://www.obscure-reference.com/~sheath/_ ;
(http://www.obscure-reference.com/~sheath/)
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Todd Michael Day
Jeffersonton, VA, USA
blkvulture@xxxxxxx
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